Hiking

I've been meaning to write this post all week, but I kept getting distracted by other things. Mostly, I've been spending a lot of time on Tumblr. Here's the link to my tumblr if you're interested.

Over the weekend, my husband and I went hiking for the first time in a LONG time. He had been asking me to go and I kept putting it off. "It's too hot!" was my main reason. And it is hot. 90 degrees, even at 9pm! So we've been working out in the house, where's there's air conditioning.

But something inspired me Sunday morning so at 7am, I woke up and said, "Okay, let's go hiking right now!" So we did. We had to drive a little ways to get to the trail he wanted to hike. It's a 1.2 mile stretch and it took us about 40 minutes. Give or take a few minutes because we took pictures.

I know our time isn't great, but I have several excuses. =) First, we did take pictures, though our camera battery died about 1/3 of the way into the hike. Second, it was our first hike in a long time, so we went slower than we used to. Third, the place is called Hemlock Cliffs. It wasn't a flat trail by any means. For example, here's what part of the trail looks like.



I tried to get some pretty pictures, though I kept having to turn the camera off and on because of the battery. We only ended up with about 30 pictures, most of which I'd be happy to delete. But I got a few I like.





These steps were steeper than they look in the photo. This area was probably the hardest part of the trail. You really have to take your time or you could get hurt.




Plus, it had rained the previous day, so the rocks were slippery. But because the rain was so recent, there were waterfalls where there normally wouldn't be. It was so pretty!




We're planning on going back with a full camera battery so we can get more photos!

A Month of Maintaining

This month has not gone at all according to plan. I was hoping to kick it up a notch, start exercising more and drop more pounds by the family reunion in June. Unfortunately, that has not happened.

With all the emotional stuff happening at the beginning of the month, I got turned completely around. I started eating larger portions again. We ate out more this month than any of the last few months combined. And I've eaten more junk food than I should have.

But I did start exercising more. Maybe I knew I would need it to help even out the break in my diet. Whatever the reason, I have been able to maintain my weight. It's fluctuated a few pounds up and down. However, overall, I've been maintaining for the last month or so.

I'm ready for that to change. I'm ready to start losing weight again. I felt so proud of myself for losing those 30 pounds. I want to lose 30 more. And then maybe 30 more after that. I need to get back on track.

Having my husband do this with me has been a huge help. And a great hindrance. When one of us fail, the other starts slipping. But we also pull strength from each other. I think we're both ready to get back on track.

So, we've discussed it and while we still don't know for sure what we're doing, we are going to start trying harder. I don't want to get sucked back into the though pattern that losing weight is too hard. It is hard! But it's not impossible. And those 30 pounds gone proves that.

Direct Life

My husband recently got a Direct Life Activity Monitor. I wasn't sure it was the right purchase for me. So I'm waiting a bit to see how motivating his is before purchasing my own. I've been looking at the different monitors like the FitBit, Bodybugg or the Gruve. If anyone has any first hand knowledge of any of these or the other devices, I'd love to hear about it!

The DH has already worn his Direct Life for the introductory week. It doesn't want you to change your daily habits for those first days so that it can accurately read your normal activity level. Then at the end of the week, it tells you that you're a lazy slug, or something like that. =)

DH is on his second week, meaning he has a daily goal now and he's trying to make sure he burns enough calories to keep the dots happy. See those green dots? There are 9 of them. The first 6 are each 15 % of your weekly goal. You want to get at least 6 dots. The last 3 are bonus dots.

Your weekly goal increases in small increments. It's supposed to be easy enough that you can keep up with it, but still challenging so that you will be losing weight. When you sync your monitor with the website, it has plenty of stats for you to see, like what time of day you're most active. It also gives you a rank against other people, though we're not sure exactly how this feature works yet.

You have to pay for the website after the first 4 months. But you get a fitness coach who supports you and provides advice on how to step it up.

So far, my DH seems happy with it. And I can tell it's motivating for him. This is just his first week, so it might be the newness, but he's been wanting to go on walks and work harder during his tae kwon do classes. All to keep the dots happy. =)

A Tough Week

Today is a great day. After having a pretty crappy week, it is exactly what I needed to keep me going.

It all started last Saturday. We went out to dinner, despite my argument that it would be hard to avoid eating something yummy bad for me. We had plans the next day to go bowling with friends and then to Pizza Hut afterward. Their choice, not mine. So I didn't want to be bad Saturday night, when I knew Sunday was unavoidable. But we went, and my DH promised we would skip out on the pizza.

Then comes Sunday. "Do we have to skip Pizza Hut? Everyone else is going!" *sigh* So we go. And I have to say, it was some of the best pizza I've had in awhile. But I was so mad at myself for being talked into eating out twice.

Tuesday night rolls around and we have to do some shopping. We normally don't do this during the week, but our contractor needed something for the house, so a trip to Home Depot was necessary. We had a disagreement about the house on the way there, putting us both in bad moods. It was late by the time we were finished and I was still irritated so a sit down restaurant was out of the question. Instead, we got Chinese on the way home.

It was so yummy. And I didn't do too bad. Egg drop soup is okay, without the noodles. And moo-shu chicken just has cabbage, eggs, onions and scallions, so overall, the meal wasn't horrible. Plus, I put more than half of it in the fridge, which my husband later ate. But that's on him.

While the DH is away, the DW will play. Or not...

My husband left this morning for a Bible conference. He will be gone until late Sunday. I'm telling you this because of the impact it has on me. Yes, of course, I'm going to miss him terribly. But more importantly, for the purpose of this blog anyway, I'm worried about what effect his being gone is going to have on my diet.

He does most of the cooking in our house. Because he went to culinary school, so it just seemed like the natural thing to do. I'm not very good in the kitchen, except for a few key dishes. I can heat up some Ramen or make pasta, or scoop some ice cream into a bowl. None of which are good for my diet.

The diet is continuing to go well. I'm still losing weight! So I don't want his absence to ruin the changes we've made in the last few weeks. We stocked up on chicken salad and sugar free pudding cups, apples and eggs. I should be able to make good choices this week. I have plenty of fast and easy meal options.

But nevertheless, I'm a little concerned. You see, he is my strength. We have been relying on each other to keep up in check. It's actually been great to have a constant support system. I think openly talking about our diet and weight has really helped us to stay on-plan.

We'll still be communicating via the phone and the internet. So hopefully, we can still offer each other moral support. And I know we're both strong enough to get past this weekend. It is just going to take a little bit of extra effort. That's totally something I'm willing to do!

Getting Back on Plan

Sunday was a test and I failed miserably.

Once ever month, my husband, who went to culinary school and used to work in restaurants, makes a huge meal for the martial arts school that he attends. There is usually a theme to the meal; this month was breakfast. He almost always insists that I go. It's a long day of cooking, then eating and socializing, talking about the status of the school and then cleaning up. So instead of sitting at home alone all day long, I generally go with him.

This Sunday was the first meal since we started our low carb diet. I didn't want to go because, even though they were having bacon & eggs, they were also serving french toast, biscuits & gravy etc. Again, he insisted I go, so I told myself that I would eat the bacon, eggs and sausage, but no more. But of course, I ate the french toast as well. He even made a strawberry sauce to go over it. Yum!

It was the first sugar I've had since the January 1. To say it tasted yummy would be a grave understatement. I thoroughly enjoyed the meal and the time spent with friends. But afterward, I was so mad at myself for eating so much. I was practically in tears because I felt so fat.

Then I realized that it wasn't so bad.

That was the only meal I had that day. No breakfast or dinner. So the calories and carbs consumed in that meal were all I had to calculate. And sure it was a much higher number than the previous week, but it still wasn't worth getting so upset over.

The morale of this story though comes from Monday. I woke up determined to get back on plan. And I did. I only ate the things we had bought for our new lifestyle. I didn't let that one meal ruin everything we've been working so hard for.

I'm down 10 pounds now and that one meal is not going to ruin it. Sure, I may have to face not having a loss this week, or even worse a gain, but that's going to happen every week. I'm going to have bad days, even bad weeks. But if I move past it and get back on plan, I will succeed.